Still in the Honey Business!

 The hive that had tracheal mites in the spring ended up thriving.  Not only did we get five frames of honey from them in the spring, but today they gave us 18 frames today for a record harvest.  We left them with one full super of honey.

Meanwhile, the hive that we split in two because it was swarming every day ended up as two healthy hives.  They each have a full super of honey.  The original hive, in the middle, has a second super that is about a third full.  We didn't take any honey from them today, but may check back in later.

I don't know that I ever posted the pictures and jar count of the spring honey.  It was tulip poplar honey this year, something we'd never actually gotten before.  The honey was dark, characteristic of tulip poplar.  The lighter honey we've gotten in the past in the June harvest probably came from black locust trees.

The August honey is beautiful.  I'll post more pics after bottling.  I've dug out the old "how to measure pints based on the level of honey in the bottling bucket formula."  Will also report back on that.

Bees at the Kentucky Shaker Village

On a recent trip in May to the lovely restored Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Kentucky, I observed all manner of livestock: chickens, goats, cattle, horses and donkeys.  It occurred to me, as a beekeeper, to wonder if there were bees about.

Sure enough, during a morning stroll we found a couple hives in the apple orchard.  One hive was dead and empty, but the other seemed to be perking along quite nicely.

I don't know if the original Shakers had hives next to these apple trees, but I would like to think that they did.  I am fairly certain that someone kept bees there...for the honey to sweeten their food, and for the bees to pollinate their crops.

The Shaker's version of an assistant beekeeper, on the wall behind the hives.

Who Says You Can't Go Home Again?

During my picnic lunch on the back porch today, I watched the hive on the right swarm for the third time in two weeks.  Half the hive swarmed and departed, presumably with the original queen, two weeks ago Sunday.  Another football sized cluster went up in the pine tree on Thursday of this week and then departed to their unknown destination.

Today's swarm spiraled happily while I ate lunch (sort of like a golden snow globe, or an insect tornado), spinning in the air a long time before settling in the way tippy top of a black locust tree up above the hive.

They are way, way up there in that tall tree to the left.  No stress on me, since they were obviously too high for any rescue efforts.

So, I continued about my day, hanging out in the back yard working on projects, occasionally checking on the cluster.  After three hours, I heard the sound of the swarm on the move.  They spun around in the air, up in front of the pine tree, down closer to the yard, up around the pine tree, down closer to the yard.  I was hoping they would just chose to move into the small, empty hive we'd chucked back in the corner for just that reason.

The little empty hive is there on the cart.  The tall hive that produced the swarm is to the left.

More bees swirled in the yard, then more, until the whole swirl was down around the original hive.  The assistant bee keeper suggested that they had changed their mind and were going home, and I, expert that I am, insisted that bees NEVER go back home when they swarm.

And just like that they started landing on the hive they'd left three hours earlier.

They clumped around the entrance and several started putting their little fannies in the air to release the "this is home" pheromone.

And then they marched right back in the hive.

Needless to say, this led to googling and internet research.  We found many bewildered dialogues and conversations, all expressing the same slack jawed astonishment we felt.  The expert bee keepers said, "Yes, this happens, and you'd better split that hive immediately or they'll swarm again tomorrow."  The theory is that something happened to the young queen that accompanied them...or maybe she stayed home to do her nails.  Anyway, without a queen, they gave it up.

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We did split the hive.  There are queen swarm cells in both the original hive and the new little hive.  Hopefully they will just get a healthy queen going without feeling the need to go up in the trees.  There are brood frames in both hives, and we have a super of uncapped honey on each.
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We also moved the empty super that had been at the bottom of the tall swarmy hive to the top to give them room for packing away more honey.
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Not wanting the "stay at home" hive on the left to feel left out, we poked around in it and robbed them of a super of honey.  We extracted five frames of beautiful, dark honey.  Pictures of the honey to follow.
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Still stunned and now rather sticky from the honey, but wow, what a day.

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A Sunday for Swarming

I walked out the back door on my way to Sunday lunch a couple weeks ago, and the air around the right hive was full of bees.  They were erupting out of the hive just as fast as they could go.

On the bright side, none of these thousands of bees had stinging on their minds, so I could walk right out in their midst and take pictures.

Unfortunately, it is somewhat like photographing the Grand Canyon.  Pictures don't quite capture the scope of the thing.

 I recommend clicking on these pics, particularly the green one above, for more of a view of the bees.  All those brown dots are bees swarming.

After a while they pick a spot, this time in the black locust tree, and they begin to gather.

More and more bees collect, until the whole group that has moved out of the hive are clustered around their queen.  They will stay here until the scout bees convince them to move on (or until the beekeepers come and either annoy them or convince them to be captured.)

At this point in the story, we were still hopeful of capture.

Here's the whole cluster...tens of thousands of my bees, up in a tree.  We suited up, got all our stuff and shook them out of the tree, but instead of falling neatly on the blanket and marching into the hive, they dispersed in the air, reclustered on the branch, and then headed off without us.

There are still bees in the hive and a new young queen.  This is how bees reproduce themselves on an organizational scale.

But it is a bummer for the beekeeper.
Click here for a more successful swarm story from a previous experience.

Spring Cleaning

We sorted out the two hives today.  Moved them from the wagons to their permanent locations on concrete blocks.  We're smarter than we used to be...put cardboard under the blocks to prevent weeds and used a bubble balance on the blocks to get them level before putting the hives there.

The hive closest to the garden, our hive with tracheal mites, looks pretty good.  There were five frames of capped brood in the top deep, nothing in the bottom and only honey in the super.  We left the super on top, replaced some of the blacker comb in the empty deep and reversed the deeps so the queen can move up and lay more eggs.

The other hive was looking very strong.  We've noticed that these girls propolize like it is going out of style, so we spend a lot of time getting the lid unglued and the frames dug out for inspection.  They had brood in their top super, so we put it on the very bottom so they'll move up out of it.  They had honey and brood in the top deep and not much in the bottom deep, so we also reversed their deeps.  We put the mostly empty frames in a new deep box with better handles for easier portability.  Later we plan to swap out the other deep box, as it likewise has shallow handles that are hard to grab.


We went ahead and added a super to the strong hive, as the tulip poplars and black locust trees are starting to bloom early this year.  This hive will probably be our main source of honey this year.  I can hardly wait to harvest.

It's a Wonder I Have Any Bees Alive at All

Please disregard the pictures on the post below.  I do not currently have a full pound of menthol on top of my bee hive.  "Sigh." 

Before putting it on yesterday afternoon, I read the packaging carefully.  It stated that the net weight was 1.8 ounces and that a whole package was a dose.  Then, overnight, I got to thinking about what I had paid for this package of menthol, and this morning I dug out the shipping order.  The invoice stated that I had purchased a pound bag.  After digging the package back out of the trash, I again read 1.8 ounce, net weight.

Freaked, I went out and scooped most of the menthol off the screen and then called Brushy Mountain, the supply company, to inquire.  The very helpful woman explained that a 1.8 treatment would be a couple of tablespoons, and that I indeed had a pound bag.

Poor bees.  No wonder they hummed in irritation.  It made my eyes water a bit when I took it off the hive.

So...further research on the internet indicated that the menthol should go in a mesh bag above the brood nest and below their honey supply.  That, for the moment, cannot be helped. 

The surplus menthol is going in a package in the fridge for the moment.  I'm going to make my own bags out of screen, I think, rather than pay for shipping. I'll work on that later.

Jimmy cricket, I feel terrible about dumping all that menthol on the hive.  That's where reading directions will sometimes take you.  Too bad the common sense took a few hours to kick in.

Forgive me, bees.  I was just trying to help.

Diagnosis and treatment

We finally received some info back from the bees we sent to the test lab in January.  Received the following email this week from our state bee inspector:

Congratulations, you were absolutely correct.  Some of the newer members weren’t keeping bees when tracheal mites were a problem.  Did you recognize the symptoms from experience or reading?  Again, good eye.  Menthol, formic acid, and grease patties are all good treatments, but requeening with a resistant stock is probably best, especially if the hive isn’t doing well. 

 

Jack

 

***My email address has changed to Jack.Hanel@ncagr.gov - please update your records.

So, tracheal mites it is.  These tiny mites live in the respiratory system of bees and can decimate a hive.  Jack initially did not think we had tracheal mites because they had not been prevalent in our area for a while.  Since the symptoms had matched the description of this type of mite when we researched back in January, we had gone ahead and put grease patties on top of the hive.  I also ordered some menthol, but waited until I heard a diagnosis before adding the menthol to the hive that had the crawling bees.

Both hives still had most of their initial grease patties when I peeked in today.  I left them right where they were, but didn't add any more.  You can see the white patties through the screen inner cover, pictured above.  The red around the edge of the screen and the yellow in the middle are both where the bees have added propolis to the screen to close it off some.  Propolis is part of their own immune system, so I love that the screen encourages them to put some around.

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PICTURE WARNING: DOSAGE PICTURED IS WRONGEDY WRONG WRONG WRONG!  SEE NEXT POST FOR CORRECT INFORMATION.  DO NOT TRY PHOTOGRAPHED TREATMENT AT HOME.  POOR BEES!  
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The screen was also handy for adding the menthol.  I put it directly on the screen over the center cluster of bees.  I suspect the grease patties are now in the wrong place....I read today that they are supposed to be on the top bars of the brood box, but for now, this is our situation.  Since I only ordered one package of menthol, we just treated the one hive today.  I'll order a couple more packages and hit both hives with a dose in a few weeks.  Spring is optimal menthol treatment time, particularly on warmer days.  We'll want the menthol off four weeks before the early summer honey flow.

The bees acknowledged the dumping of the menthol on their screen with an enthusiastic "vvvvvvvvvvvvv."  They were still buzzing loudly when I came back in the house.

The girls have been flying more with the warmer weather this year.  I've been seeing them come into the hive with pollen on their legs.  Will try to get a good pollen shot later.